Denver Sports with Pegboards

When Kevin pitched me his idea of doing a weekly wrap-up for all of the major four Denver sports teams, I thought it was pretty neat. When I realized that we were launching this in February, the undisputed worst sports month of the year, I was a little intimidated. It’s not going to be easy to discuss teams that are inactive right now, but hey, I like a challenge as much as the next guy. Let’s do it.

This is gonna be pretty cut and dry. After the jump I’ll give a brief rundown of each team and what I’m fixated on.

Denver Nuggets

Back in 2013, I praised the Nuggets for hiring Brian Shaw and predicted that he would help elevate the team to new heights. Chalk that up as the worst sports prediction that I’ve ever made and be sure to never again ask me my opinion on who should coach the Nuggets. Look, it’s not just that the Nuggets have been losing. God knows they have lost plenty in my lifetime and the George Karl era is the only period of time I can remember when they were any good. If Shaw was able to inspire his team to play hard for him, that would be one thing. If he took the blame for all of the failures and defended his team in public, that would be another. But that’s not what he does.

Shaw spends more time throwing his own players under the bus than trying to explain why they are struggling. He plays strange lineups at key moments in games, and has presided over a team that has scored less than 50 points before halftime on more than one occasion this year. He reminds me too much of Josh McDaniels, just without all of the fist pumping and cheating. Now, I don’t think Shaw should be fired, at least not yet. Better to let him ride out the season and hope the Nuggets tank so hard, they might be in reach of a lottery pick for the draft. Then dump all of the dead weight, keep Lawson, Faried and Nurkic, and start over.

Of course, the trade deadline is approaching and management may decide to make a few desperate moves in order to salvage the season. We shall see.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avs by far had the most miserable week of all these teams, and that’s saying something. They needed wins over the past week to help their playoff push, and instead they dropped three straight games to the Wild (0-1), Jets (3-5) and the Rangers (3-6). That will be good enough to keep the Avs in last place for now and could very well derail their chances of securing the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. No doubt, it’s disappointing, especially after the Avs rattled off 112 points last season and won their division. Did last season’s cinderella run raise our expectation level too high? Maybe it wasn’t fair to expect them to repeat the magic of last season.

Of course, as I write this the Avs are beating the Stars 2-0. You just never know with this team, but they can’t afford another losing streak like that if they are going to have a prayer at making the postseason. It’s now or never for Roy and co.

Colorado Rockies

Pitchers and catchers for the Rockies will be reporting in six days time, meaning the annual Spring Training of false hope will once again be upon us. I’m not at all impressed by the Rockies’ offseason moves. I’m slightly annoyed at the fact that the Padres have been handing out cash like candy to free agents while the Rockies stand idly by. And I’m sick and tired of management trying to make us believe that this season will be different because the key players will be healthy. When was the last time Tulo made it through a full season? When have we ever not suffered some debilitating setbacks to our starting rotation?

I don’t have anything nice to say about the Rockies right now, so I’m not going to say anymore.

Denver Broncos

And alas, finally a team that gives me great hope for the future. There isn’t much going on over at Dove Valley right now, but the biggest question of the offseason pertains to one Peyton Manning. I’m not here to debate whether or not Peyton should take a paycut or anything like that. All I know is that I want him back. We’ve had three mostly great seasons with the Sheriff under center. We also have unfinished business. Sure, there’s always a high risk that your 39-year old quarterback won’t be able to make it through the season and still be playing well in the playoffs.

But I don’t care. Ride with us one last time, Peyton. Ride with us once more and maybe we will finally capture that elusive Lombardi.